Starting as a young engineer in 1965, Naik has held many important positions in the company and was elevated to the board of directors in 1989. As president (operations), he has been in-charge of the engineering and projects business and has also led the company's thrust into power plants area. The operations division contributes a hefty65 per cent to the total turnover of the company. Naik thus brings to his new job, considerable experience and indepth knowledge of various operations of the company, an L&T release said here. In fact, Naik is responsible for a series of initiatives within the organisation that have contributed significantly to its growth during the few years. Prior to 1990, Group 2 existed as a single entity comprising all business lines in equipment manufacturing and very few project-related activities like small dairy plants, chemical plants and cement plants & machinery. The management of the group headed by Naik felt that each of these product lines had the inherent potential to generate substantial business and eventually establish a position of prominence.

In 1990, Group 2 was restructured into the unit equipment and projects group. The idea behind this move was to ensure that each slot would meet the needs of vital industries like fertiliser, power, cement and process industries like heavy chemicals, aromatics,downstream petrochemicals, oil and gas etc. Between late 1994 and 1995, he decided to divide the unit equipment group into four strategic business units which focused individually on each product line. The fifth SBU was formed in 1997 which specialises in power plant equipment. The EPC concept soon caught the fancy of the Naik-led team which incorporated it as the main thrust area of the projects group.

Within industry circles, Naik is considered a pioneer in ushering in the EPC concept to project execution in the country. He took over the reins of the group less than a decade ago and is credited in setting up a grassroots world-class heavy engineering works at Hazira and a technology and engineering complex at Mumbai and Baroda.